Zabergäu-Gymnasium Brackenheim

The first reference of a school for town chroniclers in Brackenheim is dated to 1460. In 1503 the Town Clerk’s office was separated from the grammar school and a certain Wendel Bender was named as the first schoolmaster in Brackenheim. Besides Latin classes with particular clerical commitments there were German classes, too. In these classes students were only taught in German. Since the Church Order by duke Christopher of Württemberg in the year 1559 the territorial lord (Landesherr) supervised the school, but the town held the authorisation to name the schoolmaster. This person had to be countersigned by the territorial lord. After 1560 an assistant teacher was mentioned beside the schoolmaster for the first time. About 1600 the construction of a new school building was started, which had been finished nine years later after a delay of building because of pest.

Under Magister (Latin: teacher) Johann Jakob Rappolt, who administered this office from 1747 to 1791, the Latin school was separated from the German classes prospectively called elementary school. Later these classes obtained their own rooms. In 1793 the great school reform changed the orientation of the grammar school from interpretation of texts to “Realien” (arithmetic, geography, regional and cultural studies of fatherland). In 1834 another type of secondary school was established. But in 1851 it was closed again in default of students. In the first few years of its short existence the school was so popular that the number of Latin students temporarily sank to under ten (1842: only three students).

In the second half of the 19th century the grammar school was transformed in a high school with Latin as first, French as second and Greek as optional third foreign language as well as the subjects German, history, algebra, geography, arithmetic, grammar, drawing and singing. In 1863 physical education was introduced at school during summer months. In 1871 schoolgirls were listed at the school, although girls were not formally admitted to grammar schools until 1900. In 1877 a gym was built, so that physical education could be given year-round in the future.

In the years after 1900 Brackenheim's grammar school was repeatedly questioned. Before the First World War the transformation of the grammar school in a secondary school was discussed. In the 1920s the teachers’ technical and vocational skills were criticed by a control commission. In 1930 the shutdown of the grammar school was suggested. This was firmly declined by the local council in the year 1936.

From 1937 the consistent curricular of the National Socialists changed the school's linguistic orientation: For the future English was the first and Latin the second foreign language. From then on the school was called ”Oberschule für Jungen” (Grammar school for boys). This type of school was a so-called “Nichtvollanstalt“, which means that girls were allowed to attend school, too. In the last years of war (1944/1945) the school enrollment number rose strongly because of many displaced families from the surrounding large cities.

After the war's end the building of the grammar school was used by French occupation troops, so that the bibliotheca of this institution was protected from depredations - in contrast to the public elementary school. Since 15 October 1945 the running of the school was started again with five grades (session 5 to 9). About 1950 the school was threatened to be closed again, because it wasn't expanded for the use of six grades, like other grammar schools.

In 1953/1954 a common building for the public elementary school and the grammar school was located. In 1963 a sixth grade was extended (10th session) to a so-called “Progymnasium“. From 1964 to 1966 a new building for the “Progymnasium“ was constructed. In 1968 about 168 pupils attended the school.

On 19 March 1971 Baden-Württemberg's ministry of education and cultural affairs granted the permission for the expansion to a so-called “Vollgymnasiums”. In 1974/1975 the eleventh grade was introduced and in the following years grade 12 and 13, so that the first pupils did their A level in 1977. 1978 and 1983 more annex buildings followed.

In the year 2006 already 950 pupils attended the school. At the beginning of the school year 2006/2007 an addition was inducted. It contains new computer rooms, more class rooms and a few rooms for the use as a full-time school. This rooms are completed by a canteen in the neighboring building.

Dr. Gerhard Aßfahl (1904–2007), a well-known local history researcher and the head of Brackenheim's city archive, was a long-term headteacher from 1939 to 1968. Because he was given the freedom of the Zabergäu's five communes in 1989, there's a special prize called “Dr.-Gerhard-Aßfahl-Preis”. Every school year this prize is given to pupils with extracurricular commitment.

• Official Website (German)
• Giovanna-Beatrice Carlesso: The history of the Zabergäu-Gymnasium Brackenheim 2006 (PDF, German)

49°04′42″N 9°03′42″E